London Live: Digital age is here to stay

Interaction will be key when London’s new channel launches. It’s not about being a TV channel but a 21st-century video service, says Stefano Hatfield

Monday 10 March 2014 13:29 BST

MUST CREDIT: MATT WRITTLE

You can’t just launch a channel on air now. TV isn’t TV in the way that it would have been if we were launching London Live 20 years ago.” It didn’t need the planned closure of BBC Three as an on-air channel and its switch to online-only this past week to prove Anna Cronin’s point.

Cronin is London Live’s head of digital, in charge of developing all the ways viewers can consume and interact with its content beyond the on-air channels. She has a clear view that it’s less about launching a traditional TV channel and more about delivering a 21st-century video service, whatever the medium or device on which viewers want to watch, whenever they want to do so.

“There’s never been a better time to launch. Traditional TV viewing has never been healthier,” Cronin argues. “In addition, online video is booming. Viewers are connected and hungry to engage, whatever the platform.

“This is such a thrilling challenge to be starting everything fresh from the ground up with London Live. What could be a more exciting audience to play with than young, tech-savvy Londoners? Everything needs building and designing but we can make it agile and adaptable.” Which all sounds very well and good — but what are viewers actually going to get?

A national channel

Right now there’s a just a temporary londonlive.co.uk site, to allow the channel to communicate with its audience before launch. When the actual website launches on March 31, viewers will find news via short-form videos, a London Live programme guide (by time and A to Z), an on-demand service, 33 local pages (for each borough and the City) and live streaming of the whole broadcast channel. This is crucial. It allows London Live to reach national audiences throughout Britain (it’s not available overseas).

Local London

There will be 33 distinct web pages, one for each London borough plus the City. But coverage will be even more local, “by neighbourhood,” Cronin says. There are ambitious plans for hyper-local traffic and weather on the map-based pages.

“We’re really encouraging people to film what they care about in their neighbourhoods across the city,” she adds. There will be a blend of user- generated content from viewers and all of our own content which will be geo-tagged, including programming. It will absolutely not feel like a local council site but we need to serve Londoners with the level of detail that they demand.”

London Live has been actively seeking London Eyes — that’s vloggers (video bloggers) who want to film, share and upload short films on what they are passionate about in their local community. Cronin says for those who want to learn more or contribute there is a “how-to” video on Londonlive.co.uk and some content briefs.

It’s all about video

Cronin is “being transparent” that the site will be “hugely” video, complementing the “brilliant words” and photos of the sister newspapers’ sites, independent.co.uk and standard.co.uk. As well as short-form news clips supporting the channel’s five-and-a-half hours-a-day news output, her job is to help create genuine interaction with viewers, helping them join in the conversation around the news, and to help shape the channel’s coverage.

Being social

Cronin, like head of news Vikki Cook, is adamant that Twitter and Facebook comments are not just relegated to filler status just before the ad breaks. Having constant dialogue with viewers about news as they watch it is key, whatever device people watch on.

“We are really opening the doors into our programmes for viewers, she says. “We want their comments, tweets, photos and videos. As a channel we will respond, thank, retweet, engage and react accordingly.

“It’s about sharing the personality of the brand with our audience. In a world of online recommendations and social validation, how we interact across platforms really matters. And we’ll use that to generate new stories and fresh angles on ongoing issues

“In the end it’s all about our tone of voice,” Cronin says. “Yes, we have to join in the conversation; to listen and respond to content issues viewers raise. And we have to realistically represent Londoners’ concerns. We’ve got to be more informal and authentic, honest and not corporate. How? It comes down to the people we hire and being more human.”